May, 2007

Built on the efforts of Hallam Goad and photographer Niles Sprague, ‘Stop Evictions’ combines images, film footage and comparative analysis to explore the truth and consequences behind Phnom Penh’s Sambok Chab relocations.

At a Glance

Stop Evictions: a photographic journey from eviction to relocation, a multi-media exhibit. Opens May 4, 7 p.m. Through June.

For more than a year, the forced relocations of Phnom Penh residents to undeveloped, often unlivable, resettlement sites outside the capital has sparked international outrage and political controversy.

In few places was the process more visible than the impoverished community of Tonle Bassac’s Village 14, or Sambok Chab. In June 2006, Phnom Penh Municipal officials and armed police began evicting more than 1,000 families to make way for a development project financed by a private company. There were standoffs and turmoil before police stormed the village, dismantled homes and trucked reluctant squatters and their belongings to an undeveloped site some 25 kilometers outside city limits.

On the new land there were a few public latrines, no drainage, no sanitation, no electricity, no water supply, no shops, markets or schools and no opportunity for employment. Human rights groups blasted the removal as inhumane, and the new residences — 4-by-12-meter plots with no structures or facilities – as unacceptable compensation.

“We ask the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the state of development in Cambodia.”

According to an NGO survey, within just three months of the eviction only 40 percent of the plots were occupied. Because of the harsh conditions most families returned to Phnom Penh to live with relatives or on the street.

Nearly a year later, the debate about Sambok Chab continues to rage, and the plight of those evicted has been echoed in similar incidents throughout the Kingdom.

Now, during the months of May and June at the FCC Phnom Penh, the saga of the displaced villagers will be told through heart-wrenching photographs taken throughout the eviction process. “Stop Evictions” opens at 7:00 p.m. on May 4 with a video screening, a presentation by the Housing Rights Task Force, and the unveiling of some 35 images taken by professional photographers, journalists and rights activists.

The collection is the brainchild of Hallam Goad, 37, a resident of Cambodia since 1998 who had worked with relocation victims for years before co-founding the NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut in 2005. For “Stop” he’s brought together images, film footage and comparative analysis that seek to explain the truth and consequences of the situation.

“The exhibition is to show how ridiculous and corrupt this process was, and the impact it had on people. The idea is for tourists and the English-speaking community to see a different side of Cambodia,” said Goad. “We ask the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the state of development in Cambodia.”

Goad sees the relocation as an abject failure, but he is quick to point out that the selected images are meant not to preach, but to speak for themselves about the pain, confusion and anger of the evictees. He was last at the relocation site just days ago and calls the situation “just miserable.”

“We’re not saying no one should be moved, that Phnom Penh should stand still. Even the people understand this themselves. They’ve said to us, ‘We’re OK to move, just give us a chance to make a new living,” said Goad. “Ever since 1998 you could see that sooner or later the city would push these people off because the land is so valuable. We want people to understand it’s the way they carried out the relocation, no the relocation itself, that was a crap process.”

To illustrate this, Goad includes in “Stop Evictions” an example of a successful relocation from almost a decade ago.

“In 1998 the municipality was involved in a constructive process,'” he said. “Some 129 families were successfully relocated from near the Olympic Stadium to a site five kilometers outside the city with land chosen by the people, purchased by the municipality and supported by UNCHS and rights NGOs. It shows that while relocation is a difficult undertaking it is possible to do it effectively, humanely and to the benefit of all parties.”

Goad’s collection of evidence and imagery has attracted more than one prestigious sponsor.

“Land rights are a hot topic, and we thought they had a good, creative approach to bring the issue to the public,” said Anisha Schubert, of German aid organization DED. “They’re not trying to be provocative, but they’ve worked with many different people to focus on good stories.”

DED is the main sponsor of the FCC show, and it was initial assistance from the Germans that got the project started last year. Goad and US photographer Niles Sprague were funded to document the eviction and resettlement. Along the way, the two teamed with journalists, activists and especially the Cambodian Legal Education Center, to collect an effective record of events. The photographs taken by Sprague and the CLEC team form the foundation of “Stop Evictions.”

“Another aim of the show is to promote the Housing Rights Task Force, which is a group of NGOs that pulled together as a response to growing issues,” said Goad. “The idea is that instead of one or two groups jumping up and down and saying this is bad, and possibly becoming a target, is to put together a conglomeration of groups that can work together.”

The show is free, but may not be for the faint of heart. Goad said he’d like to get several villagers to give firsthand accounts of their experience and to display samples of the water available at the relocation site after tested by the Pasteur Institute.

“This is an awareness raiser, but there are other things bubbling away: we’d like to start a letter-writing campaign ahead of the Boeung Kak eviction and maybe do some sort of fund raising,” he said. “But the most important thing is to create dialogue. If people look at what happened at Sambok Chab – it was a complete failure. It’s hard to imagine things getting worse.”

With a passion for fusion cuisine, new FCC group chef Clinton Webber has overhauled the FCC menu, introducing generous flourishes of traditional Khmer flavors spiked with funky French influences.

It’s a quiet afternoon at the FCC Phnom Penh and new head chef Clinton Webber has huddled his staff together for their first taste of his new menu. Like any lifelong chef, he’s understandably excited.

“It’s going to be a whole new thing,” says Webber. “There’s going to be lots of fusion and touches of Khmer cuisine. The emphasis is on being more funky. Think funky, rustic fusion.”

It’s a bold endeavor for an expert in modern French cuisine who arrived in Cambodia from a 5-star resort in Fiji. But the 28-year-old native of Wellington, New Zealand, seems as at home in the Kingdom as he is in the kitchen.

“It’s lovely here. The staff is great and I couldn’t ask for anything more,” says Webber. “We’ll have the same prices and the meals will be straight, fresh, clean and honest.”

Webber, whose official title is FCC group executive chef, will be responsible for the cuisine at the FCC hotel in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, as well as Café Fresco and a future FCC hotel opening in the capital called the The Quay. He studied at the Auckland Institute of Technology and Massey University in New Zealand. His first job was as a gourmet pizza chef and his last was at one of the finest restaurants in the Pacific Islands.

“Cooking is all I’ve ever done,” he says.

Splitting his time between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap will become more difficult when he introduces entirely different menus at each site. He plans to visit Siem Reap every two or three weeks, but in just one month he has already visited Angkor Wat twice.

“We’ll get the new menu working here before we go up there,” Webber says.

For now, Webber is enjoying a crash course in Khmer cooking. He’s already attempted a broth based around the Cambodian staple “prahok,” and his favorite dish to prepare so far is Prahet Bongkong-pork and shrimp cakes with a “pickled banana blossom” salad seasoned with coconut salt.